The Good Old Days
by Slo Motion
Summary: Set thirteen years after season 8. Ashley Hampton wonders why her mother Roxanne is so depressed all the time. One-shot.


**Title: **"The Good Old Days"

**Genre:** POV, one-short, song-fic, general, angst

**Rating: **PG; just to be safe

**Coupling: **None

**Main POV: **Ashley Hampton, Chandler and Roxanne's daughter

**Summary: **Set thirteen years after season 8. Ashley Hampton wonders why her mother Roxanne is so depressed all the time. One-short song-fic, featuring Bowling For Soup's song '1985'.

**Setting: **13 years after season 8. But I've changed a few things around. Chandler never met Kendall and Roxanne never went to Iraq. They instead ended up back together and getting married.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the TV series 7th Heaven, and I'm still glad I don't. The new season bites. They're so low on ideas they made an episode about voting for goodness sake! And also, I don't own the song '1985', Bowling For Soup does. I just listen to it a lot; it's pretty much my new favorite song. The only people I own that are mentioned are: Ashley Hampton, Andie Hampton, Aidan Hampton, Aaron Hampton, and Alicia Hampton.

**A/N: **I'd like to put this out to anyone who misses the old 7th Heaven. The good episodes really stopped after last year's premiere of the episode 'Charity Begins At Home' on October 20th, 2003. The rest of it (besides the episode 'Angel', which I liked quite a bit) has gone downhill. I hate the new season, and last May's season finale 'Little White Lies (1&2)' was awful! I think I would've enjoyed an episode of Blue's Clues more than that. They found the cheapest ways to rid of characters, i.e. Roxanne going to Iraq to fight in the war. In what universe does that happen?! Roxanne would never do anything like that! Same thing with Chandler, he'd never just take a kid he's only known for two months and move across country for some tramp like Kendall(and what kind of freaking name is Kendall anyway?!). And Peter moving, that was just weak, he didn't even get a stupid excuse like Chandler and Roxanne did. And what about Cecilia, did they even give us a reason of why she disappeared and where the hell Georgia came from, the last time I checked, Simon wanted to patch things up with Cecilia and give their relationship another shot. So anyway, sorry for the long rant, but this will go out to all the people who miss the good episodes and the real 7th Heaven and not this crap they've been serving us since last November!

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My mother.

She's always so depressed. She never smiles. She cries herself to sleep at night, but my father pretends not to hear her. We all pretend not to hear her. Her heart is broken, but everyone goes on with life and leaves her to be.

She lost her voice somehow. Her need to fulfill her dreams faded away so many years back.

Her name is Roxanne Hampton.

And I, Ashley Skye Hampton, am her 12-year-old daughter who can do nothing to help her.

_Debbie just hit the wall   
She never had it all   
One Prozac a day   
Husband's a CPA   
Her dreams went out the door   
When she turned twenty four   
Only been with one man   
What happened to her plan_

She has hit the wall. She cracked. She isn't at all the person she was all those years ago. She changed.

She used to be Roxanne Cecile Richardson. The sexy and scandalous cop who jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend. The girl who spoke her mind. The girl with an edgy attitude and wasn't afraid to let it lose. She was the girl who didn't believe in real love, just flings. The girl that no man could tame.

But then she met Chandler Hampton, my father.

_She was gonna be an actress   
She was gonna be a star   
She was gonna shake her ass   
On the hood of white snake's car   
Her yellow SUV is now the enemy   
Looks at her average life   
And nothing has been alright since_

My dad changed my mom's whole outlook on relationships and love. He changed her. He showed her real love. He didn't just make out with her like all the other guys mom had been with had done. He took her out on dates, he gave her meaningful kisses, he talked about marriage and having kids and spending the rest of his life with her, and he told her that he loved her.

That scared my mom. That's right, the woman that no man could tame was scared by a man's affections. She hid her fear of real love with sexual desires.

Dad didn't want to be sexual with mom until they were married, or at least engaged, at first. But eventually, he caved into her urges. He told mom that he did want to sleep with her, but that scared her even more. She was afraid of all kinds of commitment, sexual relations included.

Roxanne Richardson, the hot cop chick, the love drifter, the wild untamable girl, had been tamed. And hear heart was broken. She didn't want to feel this way.

She wanted to love dad, she really did. But he scared her. She had originally just wandered into the church one day looking for a good make out session with dad. Not a relationship, not any kind of commitment (sexual included), not marriage, not kids, and definitely not dad falling madly in love with her. She just wanted a fling.

_Bruce Springsteen, Madonna   
Way before Nirvana   
There was U2 and Blondie   
And music still on MTV   
Her two kids in high school   
They tell her that she's uncool   
Cause she's still preoccupied   
With 19, 19, 1985_

But it gets worse. She doesn't just cry herself to sleep at night. Mom cries whenever she gets the chance.

She's miserable. My whole family knows it. I know it, dad knows it, my twin sister Andie knows it, my 10-year-old brother Aidan knows it, my other brother Aaron (who is 7) knows it, and even my little 5-year-old sister Alicia knows it. I'm also starting to think that Simon and Janie, our cat and dog, took notice to it too.

The only one who is blind and unaware that there is any misery within our house is mom herself.

_She's seen all the classics   
She knows every line   
Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink   
Even Saint Elmo's Fire   
She rocked out to Wham!   
Not a big Limp Bizkit fan   
Thought she'd get a hand   
On a member of Duran Duran_

I am now watching mom unload the groceries from the family SUV from my bedroom window. She looks like she wants to put a gun to her head and shoot herself. She looks so upset. She looks so broken. So lifeless and unhappy.

Poor mom. She hates this. She hates living a lie. She hates convincing everyone she is happy when she really isn't. She hates leading dad on to believe that she ever wanted to or ever did love him. Roxanne Richardson isn't one to love a man, and never will be.

Mom hates this life. She hates being married and tied to one man for the rest of her life. She longs to be the free spirit she once was again.

_Where's the mini-skirt , m__ade of snake skin   
And who's the other guy that's singing in Van Halen   
When did reality become TV   
Whatever happened to sitcoms, game shows   
On the radio was_

I worry about mom. I care about her and I want her to be happy. I want to set her free. I want to help her become what she was before dad tamed her.

But I can't

I sighed deeply as I looked over at out family picture resting upon my dresser.

_The Hampton Family._

_110 West Street. Glen Oak, California._

_Parents Married Since: May 3rd, 2004._

_Chandler James Hampton. March 3rd, 1979._

_Ashley Skye Hampton (me). April 10th, 2005._

_Andie Elizabeth Hampton. April 10th, 2005._

_Aidan Tomas Hampton. November 29th, 2007._

_Aaron Jesse Hampton. June 1st, 2010._

_Alicia Kylie Hampton. July 3rd, 2012._

_And Roxanne Cecile Hampton. March 19th, 1981. _The one who is sad, depressed, and miserable. And nothing can be about it.

_Bruce Springsteen, Madonna   
Way before Nirvana   
There was U2 and Blondie   
And music still on MTV   
Her two kids in high school   
They tell her that she's uncool   
Cause she's still preoccupied   
With 19, 19, 1985_

It's now pretty late at night. I wonder why mom hasn't cried herself to sleep yet. It's about 10:00 pm, that's usually the time she starts crying.

_She hates time, m__ake it stop   
When did Motley Crew become classic rock   
And when did Ozzy become an actor   
Please make this stop   
Stop! __Stop!   
And bring back_

It's now 10:01 pm. I can hear my mom crying from her bedroom now. The noises of her sobs fill the huge, empty house. Mom is unhappy. And I can't save her.

_Bruce Springsteen, Madonna   
Way before Nirvana   
There was U2 and Blondie   
And music still on MTV   
Her two kids in high school   
They tell her that she's uncool   
Cause she's still preoccupied   
With 1985_

Roxanne Richardson is not what she used to be. She used to be as free as a bird. But now, she's as trapped as a rat.

_Bruce Springsteen, Madonna   
Way before Nirvana   
There was U2 and Blondie   
And music still on MTV   
Her two kids in high school   
They tell her that she's uncool   
Cause she's still preoccupied   
With 19, 19, 1985_

Her crying can still be heard. Roxanne, my mother, is crying tonight. She cries every night. And she will probably continue to cry for the rest of her life.

Roxanne Hampton. She is a miserable woman who longs for the good old days. The days where she was no man's wife. The days where she was the pretty young cop with an attitude. The days where she was as free as a bird. But that Roxanne is gone and has been replaced with this depressed and unhappy shell of a woman.

And I can't do anything to help her.

Where have the good old days gone? For me and mom both. Because now, I'm crying myself to sleep too right along with my mom.

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**A/N: **So...what did you think? I hope you liked it. I spent two full hours typing it! I'm really proud of this one-short, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Please send me a review telling me if you enjoyed this story. I spent two full hours typing it!

-Alexa


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